Offaly woman forced to cancel surprise trip for kids over passport office 'disgrace'
One Offaly mother has told the Offaly Express she has been forced to cancel a surprise trip away with her children amid a chronic backlog of passport applications.
Lisa Donnelly told us how she applied for four first-time passports back in January to ensure she would have them for a surprise trip to Legoland for her kids in May.
Lisa has now been forced to cancel the trip and is, in fact, still waiting for a number of the applications to be processed. She labelled the process a "disgrace" and has run into problem after problem with the system despite replying promptly to queries each time.
Lisa explained: "On January 19 this year I applied for four first time applications online as I was advised this was the quickest way. The money was taken from my account that day.
"I then sent in my applications, signed and stamped by the gardai. The estimated issue date came back as April 22."
She said this seemed okay as she was planning on surprising her children with a trip to Legoland in early May.
"On April 12 my daughter's passport was issued. My passport, which had gone out of date over five years ago, was questioned and I was asked for my driver's licence. I sent this in immediately and had to wait nearly one month to get this back. Then my passport came in early May."
This was a long enough delay but there was more to come for Lisa and her ordeal with the passport process.
"On April 14 I got a mail to say there was an issue with the picture on the application for my other daughter, a glare on her glasses, and I would need to resend a picture and also get a new cover page signed by the gardai. I had this back to the passport office within three hours but they changed my issue date to May 12. Nearly a full month later," she explained.
Frustration for Lisa reached boiling point when on May 12, the date she was expecting to receive her daughter's passport, she received a mail to say there was another issue with the passport application.
"At this stage, we had cancelled all plans to go away in May and in June. I have phoned the passport office over 100 times to get through four times. On May 12, I got through and was told the issue now is they want to confirm my daughter's identity with Edenderry gardai but have called four times and can't get through.
"What can I do?" Lisa said with frustration.
"I got another new form and got the school to sign it and had it back to them within two hours only to find out the application has been put back to June 9, basically another month."
"I believe the passport office is blaming people instead of taking the blame for the backlog," she claimed.
"I applied early to ensure we got them on time. I paid on the day we applied for them. The issue is not with people but with the process. How can I return the information needed within a three-hour bracket only to have the application put back a month each time. This is a disgrace. I am not asking for preferential treatment but they have a duty of care to us once they have taken the money," she fumed.
"Our passports are very straightforward applications and yet I'm waiting nearly 20 weeks for them. What a disgrace.
"We have now been unable to book any holidays with family eas we still don't know if we will have the last passport soon. It's so unfair," she concluded.
The passport backlog has been making headlines for weeks now but the Government insists it is being addressed with work underway to recruit 900 new staff members.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, tweeted last week that staff are working "flat out" to process applications.
The Irish Independent reported at the weekend that Minister Coveney claimed some delays in the process are caused by applicants taking "months" to return follow-up documentation requested although this is not the case in Lisa's situation.
He also claimed that passport office staff being unable to contact garda stations, particularly in rural Ireland, to verify signatures was another major issue.
A lot of garda stations have limited opening hours.
New figures show that 39% of applications in the passport system are not completed with some taking months to resolve.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has suggested a new passport office could open in the west of the country to help with the backlog.